STEVE EMERSON: HARDENED TERRORIST GOING FREE AND PUBLIC
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.11333,css.print/pub_detail.asp
Canadian terrorist Omar Khadr, a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who pled guilty to a litany of al-Qaida terrorism charges in October 2010, soon will be released to Canada. As the Toronto Sun’s Ezra Levant puts it in his new book, The Enemy Within, Khadr’s reception by Canadian liberals will cover up his crimes and salute him as the victim of American abuses.
Khadr was captured in Afghanistan in July 2002, after throwing grenades at American soldiers, and was discovered with video of his helping to build and places anti-vehicle mines for Afghan resistance fighters. Khadr, who was 15 at the time of his arrest, spent the next eight years in Guantanamo interrogations, awaiting his American trial.
During this time, liberal activists like the Canadian Bar Association advocated on Khadr’s behalf alongside local Muslim associations, arguing that the Canadian conservative government was responsible to protect his rights while he was in American custody and to bring him home.
The irony of the case, as Levant points out, is that despite Khadr’s confession and unrepentant attitude, he is unlikely to serve much time in Canadian prison. After completing his mandatory year in American prison, he could be repatriated at any time as soon as his paper work is complete. Under Canadian law, the years Khadr spent in prison will count toward his parole date, which amounts to only one third of his sentence. He will also be released without any formal rehabilitation program, allowing him to roam freely in Canada and speak before Canadian Muslims and leftists about the crimes of America.
As Levant points out, Khadr’s superstar status among Canadian left-wing intellectuals means that he will likely be asked to address some of Canada’s most anti-American and anti-Semitic student audiences. Despite his crimes, Canada’s government is essentially giving him a “Get-out-of-jail-free card,” and a podium to boot.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Steve Emerson is an internationally recognized expert on terrorism and national security and the author of five books on these subjects, most recently “Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US.” Steve also writes for the Counterterrorism Blog and he is the CEO of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT).
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